Abstract

In this dissertation, I study the strategy of giving semantical replies to skeptical puzzles. I concentrate on a very simple kind of puzzle, which seems to invite--and perhaps even require--semantical responses. Skeptical problems of this kind, which I call "switched-words" problems, are based on alternative hypotheses about the world which are structurally very similar to our standard hypotheses; for example, it has been asked how we can justify choosing our standard physical theory over an alternative hypothesis formulated by taking the standard theory and intersubstituting 'electron' and 'molecule' at every occurrence. Switched-words skeptical puzzles are peculiarly resistant to anti-skeptical arguments based on non-semantical considerations such as simplicity, ontological economy, or explanatory power; however, they leave one feeling that there must be some easy semantical way of answering the skeptic. Thus they offer a way to isolate and study semantical anti-skepticism in an environment where it should thrive. In the first Chapter, I examine, and reject, the classical semantical response of saying that the alternative theory simply restates the standard theory in a different notation. The second Chapter is devoted to a more precise statement of the switched-words problems, and involves a methodological analysis of just what anti-skeptical premises a skeptic must accept. In Chapter Three, I examine another recent semantical answer to switched-words skepticism, finding a modified version of it to be applicable, though in a limited number of cases. In the fourth Chapter, I develop a general form for giving semantical answers to switched-words skeptics, which has the last-studied answer as a special case. This general strategy is independent of any particular semantical theory; it explains the general failure of switched-words skepticism by reference to a general feature of any plausible semantical theory. It also explains why, in certain cases, the switched-words skeptic is correct. Studying this strategy in Chapter Five reveals that while it is important--even necessary--in replying to certain kinds of skepticism, it cannot offer us an anti-skeptical panacea.